Each Saturday the editors at Apex Publications will share some of the more interesting links found during the week.

Brian Keene with a no-holds barred post about self publishing. He also initiates a discussion on the possibility of mid-listers self publishing their backlist as an additional source of income.

Jennifer Pelland’s SF-collection Unwelcome Bodies has earned a nomination in the category of “Best Collection or Anthology” for the Culture Geek Best of Decade Awards. Quite an honor for both Jennifer Pelland and Apex! This is a fan voted award so we hope you can head out to the Culture Geek website and give vote for your favorites. Vote here.

Prime, the cyberpunk novella by Nate Kenyon has made the PopSyndicate.com Best of 2009 list. Congratulations to Nate!

The fan-voted and annual Preditor & Editors Award is open for voting.

Hey, guess what? More voting! Fantasy Magazine is having their annual poll for the best piece of short fiction published by them. I voted, so now it’s your turn. Notable authors you can vote for include Lavie Tidhar and Paul Jessup. Go here to vote.

While we’re at it, why not go vote in the Apex Magazine poll for best story of 2009?

Congratulations to Apex editor for her first fiction sale of 2010. She made the sale to Crossed Genres.

Check out Jim Stitzel’s cool Halo-based web comic Reclaimer.

Jeff VanderMeer writes a great article about short fiction submission strategies.

Have a cool link you’d like to share with us? Shoot me an email and let me know!

Back when I started trying to write professionally, I was lucky enough to get admitted to the Viable Paradise workshop, and even luckier to get a personal critique there from James Patrick Kelly. My story was a post-cyberpunk piece about junkies selling body parts to get money for drugs. He gave me an invaluable piece of advice in that crit session: “You’re probably going to have a lot of people this week tell you that your story’s got too much puking in it, but don’t listen to them. Leave the vomit in.”

When Jim Kelly gives you permission to write ugly, it’s a wonderful thing. I took that permission, ran with it, and haven’t looked back since.

Why does ugly writing connect so strongly with readers? Because we all know in our heart of hearts that we’re ugly. We’re nothing but animated skin bags filled with meat and bones and juices. We shit, we puke, we leak fluids of varying degrees of viscosity. Some of us are oily, some are flaky, some are both. We produce odors and gasses. Our insides burble and grind. We wither, sag, bloat, discolor, and decay. We disgust ourselves, and we’re deathly afraid that we disgust others. And anything that speaks to that hits us right where it hurts. Beautiful writing speaks to our souls, but ugly writing punches us right in the gut.

Now, before I go any farther, let me specify that ugly writing doesn’t need to be horror, and it doesn’t need to have an unhappy ending. But rarely does ugly writing give you an unconditionally happy ending. Life, which we’ve already established is ugly, rarely does that, and ugly fiction is true to that.

I’ll use one of my own stories to illustrate this principle (I could use other people’s work, but if I don’t feed my ego every so often, it gets, well, ugly). My best-known story, “Captive Girl,” is the epitome of ugly writing, despite being a love story. And it’s a love story that has a happy ending, but it’s a happy ending that makes most readers squirm. Why? Because it’s a story about the sacrifices some people need to make in order to find love, and man, does the main character sacrifice. She’s just as conflicted about the sacrifice as we are, but in the end, she makes it anyway. And if I did my job right, I made many of the story’s readers question the sacrifices they’ve made for love as well.

Of course, you can write ugly without happy endings. In many ways, that’s easier. The story Jim Kelly critiqued is called “Dazz,” and things do not end well for its protagonist. She ends up quite literally diminished as a character, and has all her hope taken away. She gives up on ever improving her lot in life, but paradoxically, doesn’t give up on living it. It’s an ugly lesson that we’ve all learned to varying degrees in our own lives, and the most effective way to convey that in fiction is to go ugly.

Mind you, there is a downside to writing ugly, and that’s that most readers don’t want to read ugly. Romance sells better than horror. Sword and sorcery sells better than dystopian science fiction. It’s unfair, but like I keep saying, life is ugly. People aren’t generally fans of having mirrors held up to their flaws. It’s a little easier for them to take when they can pretend the stories are about other people’s flaws, but readers with an ounce of self-consciousness (in other words, anyone who hasn’t been on a reality show) are going to find themselves circling the ugly right back along to themselves. And that can be too scary for some.

But for those of us who are willing to go to those dark places, ugly writing can bring us to them faster than any other writing style out there. So to any writers out there who are afraid to write the ugly truths that keep popping into their heads, I say hang onto that fear, because fear is where truth lies, but write ugly anyway. Dig deep into those ugly places inside of you and spread them out in a disgusting mess in your work. Be prepared for the rejections to hurt more than they do for your lovely stories — after all, those stories aren’t putting your personal ugliness out there on display. But keep at it. It’s important work, it’s honest work, and paradoxically, it’s beautiful.

---

Jennifer Pelland lives just outside Boston with an Andy and three cats. Her debut short story collection Unwelcome Bodies was released by Apex Publications in 2008, and she has a story in the newly-released Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume 3. A Nebula loser last year, Jennifer hopes to become a Hugo loser real soon now as part of her quest to lose new and more prestigious awards. Visit her online at www.jenniferpelland.com.

Sunday, January 18 – Monday, January 19
Author Michael A Burstein is interviewed by SFSite! – Michael A Burstein, author of the collection I REMEMBER THE FUTURE, has been interviewed over at SFSite! You can read the review here.

Tuesday, January 20
Michelle Lee Reviews Apex Magazine — December 2008 Issue – Michelle Lee, a sage of sf/fantasy/horror lit, has reviewed Apex Magazine — December ‘08 over at Book Love! You can read the review here.

Wednesday, January 21
What’s good about 2008? Jennifer Pelland’s UNWELCOME BODIES! – Deanna Toxopeus over at RevolutionSF has declared that Jennifer Pelland’s collection of short stories, UNWELCOME BODIES, is one of the great things about 2008!

Apex + Cemetery Dance = A Scary Duo – Apex Publications is pleased to announce that Cemetery Dance will be offering select Apex titles via their webstore for a trial period.

Apex Bestsellers of 2008 -
Bestsellers of 2008:
1) I Remember the Future — Michael A. Burstein
2) Unwelcome Bodies — Jennifer Pelland
3) Mama’s Boy and Other Dark Tales — Fran Friel

December 2008 Bestsellers:
1) I Remember the Future — Michael A. Burstein
2) Mama’s Boy and Other Dark Tales — Fran Friel
3) The Convent of the Pure (pre-orders) — Sara M. Harvey

Thursday, January 22
Stoker Preliminary Ballot – Three of our books have made the preliminary ballot.

Non-Fiction:
Beauty & Dynamite by Alethea Kontis

Collection:
Mama’s Boy and Other Dark Tales by Fran Friel

Long Fiction:
Orgy of Souls by Wrath James White and Maurice Broaddus

Help us name the Apex Magazine anthology – As promised when we moved Apex Digest to digital, we will be publishing a reprint anthology of all the original fiction published in Apex Magazine up through June, 2009.

Unfortunately, the Apex editorial staff has drawn blanks when it comes for deciding on a title. Please place your title suggestion in the comments of this blog entry.

Friday, January 23 – Saturday, January 24
The Fix Reviews Apex Magazine — Issues Nov ‘08 and Dec ‘08 – Kimberly Lundstrom with The Fix has just posted reviews for both the November 2008 and December 2008 issues of Apex Magazine.

Editor and Author News
Sizemore Convention Appearances – For those of you stalking Jason, our publisher, he’ll be appearing at the following conventions:
Millennicon – Mar 20-22
Hypericon – June 5-7
Mo*Con – May 15-17
Inconjunction – Jul 3-5
Context – Aug 28-30

Link Carrot
Plagiarism Today – Content Theft, Copyright Infringement, and Plagiarism

“I really loved that character in that story you wrote. Will you ever write more about her?”

“No, I’ve already told her story.”

“And that term you had for that thingie? It was brilliant.”

“Thanks. I can never use it again, though.”

“You should tell another story in that universe some day.”

“I can’t. That universe was only for that one story.”

“Have you ever thought about expanding that story into a novel?”

“No, it’s not a novel-length idea. Besides, I’m done with it.”

“Really, though, you should reuse some of that stuff, because it was good.”

“But…but…that would be cheating!”

Does any of this sound familiar to you? If so, then you might be a serial short story writer, just like me. And I don’t mean “serial” in the “series of stories” way, but in the “serial monogamist” way. I find an idea, woo it, play with it until it bores me, and then move on to the next idea that entices me with a flash of comely ankle. The thought of expanding “Captive Girl” into a novel fills me with horror. How could I possibly lengthen that story without ruining it? Suggestions that I use the world of “Brushstrokes” as the setting for a novel leave me boggled. That world was created strictly to prop up that one story–surely no other story will fit into it. Hell, when I contemplated recycling the term “wristie,” which I originally coined for “Dazz,” I felt a terrible guilt. How could “Dazz” and Chameleon possibly share a term? They’re completely different universes!

Clearly, I need help.

Part of me wonders if this is just a peculiarity of some short fiction writers. There are a good number of us out there that never revisit a universe once we create it. Why? Maybe for us, a short story is a perfect little nugget of intertwined plot and character and universe that cannot be unraveled without destroying it. Trying to pluck the background from “The Last Stand of the Elephant Man” to use it for another story would diminish the original. Don’t ask me how. I can’t explain it. But I feel like I would be hurting Joseph Merrick if I did so. Or maybe we just like creating new worlds and new characters, and the short story is the perfect venue for doing that over and over and over again. Or maybe, just maybe, we’re afraid that we’ll expose just how thinly something is written if we try to isolate one piece of it to use again elsewhere. In a short story, you only have to convince your readers that your universe works for a handful of pages. In a novel, you have to keep someone convinced for the days or weeks it takes them to finish reading.

Then again, I don’t exactly write the kinds of stories that lend themselves to follow-ups. The way I end my stories, it would be a cheat to go back a few years later and say, “And here’s what happened next,” because that would take the power out of the endings of the original stories. I mean, really, what’s the point in going back to see how Big Sister is getting along in “Big Sister/Little Sister,” or seeing how well Marika and Alice’s relationship is going in “Captive Girl?” Maybe if I didn’t put my characters through such massive trauma over the course of their stories, I’d have something to revisit. But what’s the appeal in that?

Still, this doesn’t explain my great reluctance to recycle terms. How is that cheating? You can’t plagiarize yourself. Well, unless you’re John Fogerty. And plenty of writers do it. So why can’t I? It’s not like I have an easy time coming up with unique names for future widgets. And don’t get me started on how damned difficult it is for me to build a full and convincing world. It would make my life so much easier if I could reuse story bits without guilt.

Maybe that’s it. Maybe “easier” isn’t the point. Maybe it doesn’t feel like writing if I don’t have to create every detail from scratch. Hell, I’m not just a serial short story writer, I’m a serial speculative short story writer. If I could write mainstream without being bored out of my skull, I wouldn’t have to invent worlds and gadgets and social norms every time I sat down to write. That sounds so friggin’ easy, doesn’t it?

And yet, there it is. “Writing” and “easy” just do not fit together in my brain, and contemplating using any technique that promises to make the process easier only fills me with guilt. I have no problem reading other people’s reused universes (New Crobuzon and Discworld, anyone?), and delight in revisiting beloved characters from my favorite authors, but I can’t do it myself. It just feels flat-out wrong. Maybe some day I’ll manage to write something that can be revisited without feeling like a cheat, but I’m not counting on it. Why? Because I’m a serial short fiction writer, that’s why. And I’m okay with that.

So the next time you come up to me and say, “Wow, I’d really love to see more of that guy in that story!” and I look like I’m struggling really hard not to wince, you’ll understand why. I’m flattered, really I am, but the only way you’re going to see more of that guy from that story is if you re-read it. But hey, why not try out this other guy from this other story I just wrote? I’m sure you’ll love him too. And if not, I’ve got plenty more where he came from. Trust me.

---

Jennifer Pelland is a Waltham, MA based writer of dark science fiction and fantasy. Her work has been nominated for the Nebula and Gaylactic Spectrum awards. In 2008, her first collection of stories, Unwelcome Bodies, was published by Apex Book Company.

Unwelcome Bodies is available through the Apex Store or via Amazon.

For one week only, the following Apex Book Company titles are on sale for $10.00:

Unwelcome Bodies
The Next Fix
HebrewPunk
Aegri Somnia
Gratia Placenti
Orgy of Souls
Mama’s Boy and Other Dark Tales
Beauty & Dynamite

Make Alexander Hamilton proud. Spend ten bucks and buy a book!

Instead of conducting a formal interview, we decided to let the fans at Jennifer. We hope you enjoy our first fan-based Q&A!

Jennifer;

A great deal of your stories in Unwelcome Bodies deal with the extremes of disease or natural disasters. What draws your fascination to these subjects?

In “The Last Stand of the Elephant Man” there is a great deal of emphasis on humanity’s attraction to morbid sights. Is this a commentary or reflection of your own interests in the horror culture?

Thank you,

Brandon Layng

I’ve always been fascinated by all the ways that things can go wrong with the human body, and for the life of me, I don’t know why. I still remember reading and re-reading a book my aunt had on historical circus freaks when I was a kid. It was filled with pictures of Siamese twins, people with extra legs, no legs, scaly skin, fur, parasitic twins…you name it. And I also somehow became fascinated with paralysis at a young age as well. I remember reading The Other Side of the Mountain (a story of a teenager who becomes quadriplegic in a skiing accident) when I was pretty young with a combination of horror and fascination. I’d try to prepare myself for all kinds of horrible accidents, just in case. I tried to learn sign language in case I went deaf, I tried to learn Braille in case I went blind, I tried to learn to write left-handed in case something awful happened to my right hand like Johnny Tremain, and I despaired when I failed at each, because I was convinced it would come back to haunt me. I honestly can’t tell you why I developed these weird fears and fascinations, but they’ve been there as long as I can remember.

As for natural disasters, what could be more scary than the planet trying to kill you?

And I do think human beings are attracted to the grotesque. The fact that people used to be able to make a decent living as traveling freaks attests to that, as do the tamely-named “curiosity delays” on
href=”http://apexbookcompany.papermountain.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/ub.jpg”>the highway nowadays. We flock to the Internet to see celebrity plastic surgery gone wrong, we go to YouTube to watch the clip of Budd Dwyer shooting himself in the head, we forward around the picture of the snake that ate an alligator and then burst open. Human beings like to be shocked. So when I write, I often find myself thinking about what people will find shocking in the future, because clearly, that’s a moving target. We become inured to shock through exposure. Think of how shocking Alice Cooper was when he first came out. In the age of Marilyn Manson, he became quaint. Cute, even. And now Manson isn’t even that big a deal. Figuring out future shocks — or things that will no longer be shocking in the future — is an interesting exercise for me.

###

Not trying to over-emphasize Brandon’s question, I think Unwelcome Bodies was aptly named, and the overall theme does seem to be a certain “uncomfortable-ness” from which they stem and that they generate, but is it central to your writing, a phase, or a one-time thing?

Plus, are you working or thinking of doing a lengthier work?

Thanks,
n.fonseca

Well, bodies are bizarre and annoying things. We can never make them look or behave exactly how we want them to, but we’re surrounded by images of people who have succeeded where we have failed. And even their bodies will eventually fail them, due to age, disease, accidents, or neglect. Plus, being raised Catholic didn’t exactly help me have a happy relationship with my body. So I suspect there’ll be more body-centric work in my future. Really, what’s more personal and fraught with issues than a person’s relationship with their own body?

As for longer works, I have tried my hands at novels, but I haven’t yet managed to interest an agent in any of them. I’m currently writing my third, and maybe this one will be the charm.

###

Jennifer,

1. You’ve said that “Captive Girl” would be a completely different story if the main characters were male and female instead of both female. (And yes, you are very right.) Do you feel that some topics are easier, or less inflammatory to explore through minority characters?

That’s an interesting way of putting it. I’ve tended to look at my characters in terms of their place in the power hierarchy, or to put it another way, what the superficial cultural expectation about them might be. Two women have a different power relationship together than a woman and a man, or two men. A lower-class character and an upper-class character have a fairly specific set of societally-defined dynamics when relating to each other. People look at Mexican immigrants differently than they do German immigrants. A black person who speaks like an educated white person gets treated differently than a black person who “sounds black.” So these are the kinds of things I try to think about when figuring out who the best characters for my story will be.

2. What’s been your “highest” moment as a writer so far?

I’d have to say the Nebula nomination. I had a whole host of mixed emotions around it, but man, to be able to forever say that I’m a Nebula nominee is pretty damned cool.

3. When are we going to see a story about a belly dancer? :)

Oh, you will. Trust me. I’m just still trying to figure out the perfect plot for her. I’ve got my setting, and I think I have my character, but the plot continues to elude me.

4. There’s usually so much in your stories that people often come away saying it’s about different things. Has anyone seen something in your stories that surprised you?

I think when my stories are misread, that’s the most surprising. Someone recently said that “Big Sister/Little Sister” was about Siamese twins. Well, not really, but whatever. And I’d been unaware at just how much I wrote about bodies until Teresa Nielsen Hayden came up with the title of the collection for me. Even then, I just thought it was a cool title until the reviews started rolling in, and many of them commented on how perfect the title was given the theme of all the stories. But I think what’s surprised me most has been Jason’s reactions to stories I’ve sold to other markets. I apparently have no clue when I’ve written something that he’d buy, because I often find myself thinking, “Oh, this isn’t an Apex story” and then get an email from Jason after someone else publishes it saying that he would have bought it in a heartbeat.

###

What was your inspiration for “YY?” Was it a challenge maintaining such a hight level of intensity throughout the story?

~Brian

The inspiration was a nightmare I had. The little echoing voices in the basement, with the last one coming from right behind the door, the little kid sitting curled-up on the floor by the basement door — that’s straight out of a dream (although in the dream, there were two kids, and they were the little boys from The Boondocks). Then I got the theme for Aegri Somnia and tried to figure out what story I could tell with those little guys that would work for the anthology. As for the intensity, I had a really difficult time with it, especially at the end. I’m not exactly an action writer, so figuring out how to make the fight scene at the end not sound like a laundry list of action items was extremely difficult. Keeping the piece relatively short helped, I think. And being able to break away to flashbacks also helped, because those bits let me build an entirely different kind of tension. I haven’t tried to write another story like it since, which probably tells you something!

###

Your stories, to me, seem much more driven by theme and human emotion/condition than typical spec fic. When imagining a new tale… What usually comes first for you? The “WHAT IF” and fun of the spec goodies (I know you’re kinda twisted), or the challenge of exploring a new theme/emotion? (ie: “The girl in the tub” — was it simply the physical image of the girl that got the Pelland wheels rolling, or was it the what-is-REALLY-going-on-HERE factor?) Thanks, Jenn!

It’s really varied, but usually, the “what if” comes first, although not always. Sometimes, like for “Last Bus” or “YY,” I’m playing with a dream snippet and trying to figure out what happens around it. Sometimes I get a flash of a character, like for “Captive Girl” or “Brushstrokes,” and need to figure out what their story is. Rarely do I get a complete package, alas. And sometimes, I’ll mash two seemingly unrelated bits together, like a character I’ve been playing with, and a “what if?” I’ve been playing with, and realize that I’ve got something pretty good on my hands.

And I still owe you that girl in the tub story, I know! I started writing it, and then I realized that I still hadn’t figured out why I was writing about that particular day in her life, so it stalled. Maybe I should mash her against another aborted story idea and see if I get any sparks.

###

Jennifer – You do the horror/sci-fi mix so beautifully in your work. What’s your background in writing (or life) that you believe gives you this uncommon and wonderful ability to find the perfect balance?

Fabulous collection!

What’s next for you?

–Fran

Thank you! I have no idea what’s wrong with my brain, to be honest. I didn’t have a particularly traumatic childhood, and haven’t lived a particularly interesting life, so I’m not quite sure where these stories are coming from. I mean, sure, I had my share of childhood misery, but nothing that necessitated therapy. I suspect the combination of my overly-literal mind, combined with Catholic paranoia, combined with night terrors, combined with spending several years of my childhood as the school scapegoat probably was all it took. Although if it were that simple, there’d be a lot more people writing the same kind of stuff as me, because I’m sure that’s a really common story. Maybe I’m a closet sadist or something, because I really seem to enjoy doing terrible things to imaginary people.

The science fiction part is easily traceable, though. My father was a fan of both literary and media science fiction, so I was raised on the stuff. We’d watch science fiction movies and TV together, and I started reading his books earlier than I probably should have. I suspect most people wouldn’t recommend handing Harlan Ellison to a ten-year-old.

As for what’s next, more of the same, unless I can convince an agent to take me on as a client. Then more of the same, only longer!

###

Hi Jennifer,
Yours are some of the most disturbing stories I’ve ever read. I commend you for them. I’m particularly amazed by your understanding of illness, both mental and physical. I seldom see that in able-bodied people from Western cultures: we have these lenses through which we see the world, and only the sane, young, and beautiful qualify for observation. Still, you write horror, so there’s a need to horrify and dramatize disease and insanity. Have you ever written a story about these themes without turning it into horror? (ie: just dealing with the facts and the way people usually deal with them).

I’ve noticed that in most of your stories the horror comes from the way people deal with their disabilities–unhealthily. In real life, disabled people cope a lot better. Is horror the cross between catastrophe and a psyche accustomed to living in a perfect world? Are we handicapped in some way, us who confuse “normal” and “standard” with “young, healthy and sane?” Isn’t it a lot healthier to realize that real life is seldom “normal?”

Thanks!

You raise a really good point about how I’ve used disability issues in stories. I’m not sure that I’ve ever published a story where someone’s disability wasn’t used for fairly horrible dramatic purposes. Well, unless you count being intersexed as a disability, which I don’t. There’s an intersexed character in “Mercytanks” who comes from a society where it’s shunned (in other words, our society), but her father is trying to make a life for her that doesn’t involve mutilation. But you’re right, I should consider finding a way to write a disabled protagonist into a story without it being a point of horror. Of course, the challenge is finding a way to make that work in a speculative fiction piece. The future of disabilities is a tough one to predict.

Still, when you think about it, becoming disabled is a horror story. I can’t think of many real-life cases of people who’ve become disabled and taken it well right from the start. And it’s a real fear that many able-bodied people have lurking at the back of their brains. So the temptation to play with it is natural.

One thing I was careful to do for “The Last Stand of the Elephant Man” was talk to a friend of mine who’s been growing more disabled with age. I wanted to understand what that was like, both in terms of acceptance and of frustration and the vacillation between the two. So often, we’re presented with the image of “the noble cripple,” and I didn’t want to fall into that trap. My friend seemed pleased with the resulting story.

And I’m with you on the futility of “normal.” The only way to tell if you have a normal life is to see how bored you are. If the answer is “very,” then congratulations! You’re normal!

###

So hey, I will exercise my BigBorg authority and ask a question as well.

What has been your favorite reaction to your fiction? Are you a fan of David Cronenberg? There’s a thematic similarity between your stories and his films.

Jason S.

I’d say that my favorite reaction to date is hearing from a blind reader who told me that I’d nailed the ethical complications of a caretaker/disabled client relationship perfectly in “Captive Girl.” Considering that I did no research on that particular angle at all, I was very gratified to learn that I hadn’t mucked it up. Plus, I’m always a little nervous when I try to write someone else’s experience (the disabled, the non-white, the non-traditionally-gendered, etc.), so it’s always a relief to be told that I’ve gotten it right.

As for David Cronenberg, nope, I’m a wimp. I can’t watch horror films. They freak me out too badly, and then I can’t sleep for weeks, or go in my attic, or go in my basement, or swim in a lake, or eat ice cream, or…oh, you get the point. In fact, I’m enough of a wimp that I probably couldn’t read some of my creepier stories if I hadn’t written them.

###

Jen, one of the things I’ve wondered about your writing is why so much of it is so dark. I know others have asked you about this before, but do you think there is any deep-seated reason why you’re drawn to those themes?

Michael A. Burstein

I’m not sure I can answer that without getting Freudian. I mean, I had the same generic childhood nerd trauma that most of us went through, the same weird Catholic body issues that a lot of us (not you, obviously) went through, the same weird habit of reading things that I was way too young for that a lot of us had… I don’t know. I don’t think I’m that dark in person. Sarcastic, sure, and a hell of a pessimist when things aren’t going well, but not dark. Maybe I just take the writing adage of “a character gets into trouble and struggles to overcome it” a little more literally than most folks. I do sometimes get lighter story ideas, but I often have a difficult time writing them, because I’m just not sure how to pace a positive story, or how to put my characters through trouble without putting them through the wringer. So maybe I simply write dark stories because I’m lousy at writing happy ones. I really couldn’t say. I hope this doesn’t come across as a dismissive answer. I’m really struggling to come up with something meaningful to say here, and failing miserably.

###

Was Big Sister/Little Sister inspired by any true events?

Mari Adkins

Funny you should ask that. See this birthmark on my stomach? See how it wriggles when I poke it? Well, it’s actually–

No, it wasn’t ;)

###

I’ll ask another question (or ten) for this Q&A…

If you had been to write it as a male and female in “Captive Girl,” how would you have executed it? Would it still have been Captive “Girl?” Or did the idea ever occur about a captive man? Do you find that idea would have been more predictable (man and captive girl)?

How easily does writing come to you? I know you mentioned years as a fanfic writer, but does the actual writing come easily, or is it more challenging? Do you have ideas that crop up, you write half the story and then pass them over, or does every idea develop fully first and become a finished story? Do you find you like stories that are harder to write (take that anyway you want, either as content or style, etc) or the ones that seem to go from mind to paper with ease?

Thanks again, Jennifer!

Hmm. If I’d written “Captive Girl” with a man and a woman, that would have been tricky. If Marika had been a man, then people would have immediately read him as a predator. It would have been exceedingly difficult to write him so that people would give his devotion to Alice the benefit of the doubt. In fact, it would have been difficult enough that I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have pulled it off. If Marika had stayed a woman, and Alice had been a man, then people would have been cheering him on for having landed an older woman. And if they’d both been men, then I would have had to deal with the bogeyman of the “gay man as pedophile” (which is crap, but it’s a prevailing fear in our culture). Plus, having Alice be a man would have meant giving Alice a penis, which, to be frank, would have meant much more complicated seat plumbing, which would have given the reader more of a chance to step back and go, “Yeah, I’m not buying this.” Having one or both of them be men would have also changed the emotional dynamic. I don’t know if I could have made the story work with one or both of them being men. But maybe a stronger writer could have.

And writing is alternately easyish and difficult. Actually, writing isn’t so much difficult as inspiring myself to write is. I don’t know what it is about making myself sit down to write, but I’m terrible at it. Beyond that, every story’s different. Some come out quickly, some take two years. “Blood Baby” and “Mercytanks” are both two-year stories. I wrote them, had people look at them, couldn’t figure out how to fix them, put them aside for a year, poked at them again, gave up, put them aside for another year, and finally figured out how to make them work. Meanwhile, “Captive Girl” came out pretty quickly, as did “Erasure” and “Dazz.” “Firebird” originally started out as an entirely different story in my head, but after thinking about it for months and realizing that the protagonist was the roommate, it took its final shape pretty quickly. It’s a real mix. I’ve been trying to make myself write faster, and I’m not sure how well that’s working. I’ve sold a few of these quickly-written stories, but I haven’t produced anything weighty with that method yet.

The ease or difficulty of a story tends to have nothing to do with how much I like it when it’s done. The stories I’m happiest with are the ones that seem to carry a great emotional weight — “Captive Girl,” “The Last Stand of the Elephant Man,” “Brushstrokes.” They feel meaningful to me, and I’m always surprised when I re-read them, because I can’t for the life of me figure out how I pulled them off. Which is annoying, because I’d really like to write something that meaningful again!

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Jennifer Pelland is a Waltham, MA based writer of dark science fiction and fantasy. Her work has been nominated for the Nebula and Gaylactic Spectrum awards. In 2008, her first collection of stories, Unwelcome Bodies, was published by Apex Book Company.

Unwelcome Bodies is available through the Apex Store or via the Apex aStore(Amazon).

As part of our new online content, we’d like to do a fan-based author Q&A series.

Our first victim will be Jennifer Pelland.  You can ask Jennifer about any of her writing, and not just her Apex work.

To refresh your memory, here is Jennifer’s Apex bibliography:

“Big Sister/Little Sister” – Apex SF & Horror Digest issue 3

“Erasure” – Apex SF & Horror Digest issue 4

“Blood Baby” – Apex SF & Horror Digest issue 8

“What to Expect When Expectorating” – Apex SF & Horror Digest issue 11

“Clone Barbecue” – Apex Online April 2006

“YY” – Aegri Somnia anthology

Unwelcome Bodies collection

You can find her complete bibliography at her website.

Leave your question in the comments of this entry, or email them to jason@apexdigest.com.

Joseph Mallozzi, executive producer of the popular television series Stargate: Atlantis has published his review of Unwelcome Bodies as part of his “book of the month” selections. Today marked the beginning of the question and answer session, so stop by his blog and pose a question to Jen.

Also, Jen will be doing some readings and signings for those attending Readercon and/or the Boston Fetish Flea Fair…

This Saturday at 1:00, Jennifer Pelland will be
reading "Captive Girl" at the Boston Fetish
Flea Fair(http://www.nelaonline.org/fff.php).
Sunday at noon, she'll be doing another reading
from Unwelcome Bodies at Readercon in Burlington,
MA (http://www.readercon.org), although she says
that if the audience is filled with people who've heard
all the stories already, she'll read something new and
as-of-yet unpublished.  Unwelcome Bodies will be on
sale at the Circlet Press table at the Flea,
and the Broad Universe table at Readercon.

For those in the Boston area, take notice:

Author Signing: Jennifer Pelland
Friday, March 14 7:00p
at Pandemonium Books, Cambridge, MA

Nebula Award nominee Jennifer Pelland signs her first anthology of short fiction, Unwelcome Bodies, released February 29.

Jennifer Pelland has been a fan favorite and Apex staple since issue three when her breakout story, “Big Sister/Little Sister”, hit the markets. The story that features a pair of sisters with an unfortunate history has chilled many and played havoc with the squeamish. She followed the success of “Big Sister/Little Sister” with a frightening story of “Erasure”, a piece that shows you that sometimes the source of evil is not what you think it is.

Besides her Apex sales, Jennifer has had stories appear in Strange Horizons, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Abyss & Apex, and more. She runs a popular blog that details her successes, failures, and philosophies regarding genre writing.

We are proud to present this interview with Jennifer Pelland and to have her as our April ’06 Featured Writer.

Apex Online: Your issue three short story “Big Sister/Little Sister” has been one of the best received stories by the readers of Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest. Yet, you say you’re not really a horror writer. Explain yourself?

Jennifer Pelland: In my mind, “BS/LS” is a dark science fiction story. To me, horror is about either things that really can happen (monstrous serial killers, rabid attack dogs, sadistic torturers), or things that we don’t want to believe can happen, but in our hearts, are afraid might actually be real (poltergeists, the undead). It’s about the things that leave us lying awake at night with the light on. So while I agree that “BS/LS” is creepy, I don’t find it scary, because waking up with my sister’s face protruding from my belly isn’t something that leaves me lying awake at night. I’m certainly glad that people like it and are creeped out by it, but I just don’t see it as a horror story. It feels more like a dark version of the classic SF “what if?” scenario.

Oh, and for the record, my sister and I get a long smashingly.

AO: While I won’t label you with the ‘horror writer’ brand, much of your work tends to focus on the darker aspects of humanity. Both your Apex stories fit this description (“Big Sister/Little Sister” and “Erasure”), “Flood” (in Abyss & Apex), and “MarsSickGirl” in ASIM…why do you think your writing treads darker ground than most traditional science fiction writers?

JP: I’m sure it’s because I’m a rampant pessimist. Optimism looks like so much fun, but I’ve always been one for envisioning the worst in any situation. So when I sit down to write a serious story, it tends to be fairly dark in tone because that’s just where my brain lives. I hear you can take pills to go to Happy Town, but what would I write about then? Besides, happy stories are boring. Dark places are where the interesting emotions live. It’s much more interesting to try to get into the head of someone who isn’t stable or nice than it is to get in the head of a grounded, happy person. And it’s fun, too.

You know, for a while now, I’ve felt that writers are just sociopaths with a really good coping mechanism. I get to sit around and think up all sort of horrid things to inflict on other human beings, but I then inflict them literarily on my characters rather than inflicting them physically on a real person. The dark thoughts are the same, but the outlet is far more socially sanctioned.

AO: Your story “The Burning Bush”, available at EscapePod, contains one of the funniest bits of dialog I’ve read…

“The thing is,” he said, gesturing at the book, “there’s no proof in here. It’s all just faith. My scientific mind demands rational proof!”

“What will it take?” I asked. “A burning bush?”

And then my pubic hair caught fire.

Tell us a little bit about the origin of this story?

JP: Up to the part where the pubic hair caught fire, that was a real conversation between me and my husband, conducted in bed, in the nude, on a hot summer night. He was studying world religions in the hopes of coming up with answers to life, the universe, and anything, and was ranting about how none of it stood up to the scientific method. When I asked, “What will it take? A burning bush?” I immediately covered my pubes with my hand, just to be safe. After we finished laughing, I realized I needed to write a story. By the way, can you tell I was raised Catholic?

AO: You run a popular blog that I would encourage anybody looking to make a run in the highly competitive world of genre writing to follow for a period of time. You wear your heart on your sleeve and aren’t afraid to share your thoughts, disappointments, and successes. Do you find that the support you receive from your readers helps or adds more pressure to your desires to succeed?

JP: Hey, thanks. And if you think I wear my heart on my sleeve in the public entries, you should see the private ones.

The support is great. I have enough pressure to succeed applied to me by my own ego, so the blog is where I go to let off steam. I’d say that about half the comments I get are from non-writer friends of mine who are rooting me on to succeed, and the other half are from writer friends who are in the same boat who are glad to have someone to commiserate with. I suspect the latter want me to succeed as well, but not before they do. They have egos too. And that’s not a bad thing. Writers without egos don’t shop their work around.

AO: If I recall, you attended last year’s Viable Paradise workshop. Can you share something you learned from your peers and/or teachers while there?

JP: Actually, I was there as support staff last year and will be again this year for both the workshop and the tenth year reunion. I was a student back in 2002.

I think the most important thing I learned at VP was the reality of the business. Most people who succeed do so through a long, slow slog that takes them through hundreds of rejections (I’m over 200 myself). Only you don’t usually hear their stories. The people you hear about are the ones who hit it out of the park on their first try. But they’re in the minority, and you can’t model your career path on theirs, because that kind of success can’t be replicated. A writing career is a marathon, not a sprint.

Okay, how many sports metaphors did I mix in that answer?

AO: Do you have a writing mentor? If so, who would that be?

JP: I don’t have an official mentoring relationship with anyone, but I’d say that I come awfully close to having one with Jim Macdonald. He’s one of the Viable Paradise instructors, and he’s been a great teacher and supporter of mine. He’s always happy to answer questions for me, give me a boost when my spirits are flagging, and introduce me to other writers as someone to watch out for. He and Debra Doyle, his wife and writing partner, make their living as writers, which is very inspirational. I love them both. It’s wonderful to have someone so successful believe so strongly in you.

AO: Who’s your favorite science fiction writer? Horror writer?

JP: My favorite living SF writer is probably Lyda Morehouse, who wrote the Archangel Protocol series. Alas, it didn’t sell well enough, and now she’s writing non-SF under a pen name, but if there’s any justice in the publishing world, she’ll get back to writing SF again real soon now. My favorite SF writer of all time is Octavia Butler, who died too damned soon. She also wrote about the dark places in life, and wasn’t afraid to tackle difficult and painful stories. I aspire to someday write half as well as she did.

As for horror, I’m a wimp. I can’t read it, I can’t watch it. A Stephen King story about a mobile washing machine kept me awake for a month, so I haven’t touched the genre since. Although I did watch the TV version of The Shining several years back and thought it was pretty good. And I still managed to sleep, mostly. But you’re talking to the woman who kept the lights on after seeing Jurassic Park in case there were any velociraptors in the house. Velociraptors! Sheesh. I am a wimp.

AO: It’s agreed among publishing circles that you’re a writer on her way to great and bigger things. Who do you think is a rising star in the genre field?

JP: Which publishing circles are you talking about? Are there any agents in those circles? I have a couple of novels that they might want to take a look at. Seriously, though, I do appreciate the sentiment, but I think I still have a long way to slog before I’m recognized as a potential up-and-comer.

As for new writers who are on their way to greatness, I’m so bad at keeping current on my reading that I really can’t tell you. But you know who should be? N.K. Jemisin. She’s a member of my writing group who garnered an honorable mention in one of last year’s Year’s Best anthologies. And she’s written a knock-out novel that landed her a terrific agent. The only reason it doesn’t seem to have found a home yet is because it’s so distinctive and unique that no one’s quite sure how to market it. I love her work, and am always astonished when she has trouble selling it. Another star from my writing group that I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot from is Margaret Ronald, who is revising a novel that she’ll have no trouble selling. I feel funny singling out just two people from my writing group, because they’re all so good, but N.K. and Maggie are on the fast track to Successville. The rest of us will catch up eventually.

AO: One day you’re relaxing at home re-watching the pilot episode of the new Doctor Who for the twenty-third time, when your house is suddenly rushed by a large group of angry, right-wing neo-con Christians. They’re toting pitchforks and torches and have taken self-rightous offense to your ‘burning bush’ reference and demand retribution. You realize you must make your escape, but you have time to save one book in your collection. What book would that be?

JP: Just one book? *Gibbering* But…but…I have so many! Actually, it would be my idea book. Everything else I can buy again, but if I lose my idea book, then I lose nuggets of my imagination. Besides, it’s amazing how easily you can diffuse Christian ire when you point out that you were raised Catholic. People like that seem to get that people like me might have issues with the faith.

AO: I once wrote an editorial about you and Bryn Sparks. It was titled “A Love Letter to Bryn Spark and Jennifer Pelland.” Were you honored, or just plain creeped out?

JP: It was amazingly flattering, and I’ll have you know that I immediately saved it to my hard drive. But you know what stood out most for me? I’d never been referred to solely by my last name before. It was a weird professional moment to have finally reached a point where I was referred to as “Pelland” without a “Jennifer” or a “Jen” tacked in front of it. It made me feel like an official writer.

AO: Twenty years from now, you win the Hugo, Nebula, and Stoker awards for best novel. This prompts your fans to dig up the “Jennifer Pelland” time capsule that was dropped into a dirt pit outside the Supreme Court in 2006. Tell us what you placed in this time capsule.

JP: If we’re talking this Supreme Court, then probably an empty packet of birth control pills and a copy of the Bill of Rights. But putting aside politics, perhaps a thick stack of rejection letters from both editors and agents, along with copies of all my published stories. Maybe also printouts of the two completed novel manuscripts as they currently stand. I don’t know. I’m such a pack rat that I wouldn’t want to give anything away. You know what would be funny? Putting in a stack of novels that I hated with post-it notes on them explaining why each one sucked. I wouldn’t mind getting those out of my house.

AO: Robert Reed should: A) Make room for more female talent in Fantasy & Science Fiction and give up writing or B) Hell yeah, keep on keepin’ on, my man!

JP: How about C) switch genres? I don’t want the man to give up writing, but couldn’t he, say, try his hand at gay cowboy stories? Look at how good that genre was to Annie Proulx! Yes, the world needs more gay cowboy stories, and Robert Reed is being awfully selfish by not sharing his gift with the gay cowboy loving world. Shame on you, Robert Reed! Shame!

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Jennifer Pelland is a Nebula-nominated author who currently lives in Waltham, MA. Her first collection of short fiction titled Unwelcome Bodies was released by Apex Publications in February ’08. You can discover more about Jennifer at her website www.jenniferpelland.com.

Unwelcome Bodies is available directly from the Apex Shop or from the Apex aStore (Amazon).